† June, 2006
Robert M. McClung was born in Butler, he was a graduate of Butler High School. His first book, "Wings in the Woods," a fictionalized version of his summers on this grandfather's farm, was published in 1948. He received a master's degree at Cornell University and began his dream job by working at the Bronx Zoo in New York. In 1955, he left the zoo, where he was curator of mammals and birds, to devote to his writing. In 1958, he moved to Washington, D.C., as a natural history writer and editor for the National Geographic. In 1962, he moved to Amherst to devote his time to the writing of his own books. He published 66 books, including "Green Darner," "The Story of a Dragonfly;" and "Bufo, the Story of a Toad."
